Iran's Revolutionary Guards Claim Kurdish Rebels Killed In Operation

Iran's elite Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) says it has killed five Kurdish rebels near the country's border with Iraq.

The IRGC said in a statement on June 13 that the five were members of the Party of Free Life of Kurdistan (PJAK) and were responsible for the killing of three Iranian Basij militia members more than one month ago.

"A team of five from the PJAK terrorist splinter group...has been identified and destroyed in the Sardasht region on the Iraqi border," a statement on the IRGC's official website said.

There were no other details about the incident.

PJAK is an Iranian-Kurdish party based in Iraq with links to the Turkish Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Its members frequently engage in fighting with Iranian forces along the Iraqi-Iranian border.

Two PJAK fighters and two Iranian soldiers were reported killed in clashes in September.